Fruitvale Station (2013)

Fruitvale Station Synopsis

Winner of both the Grand Jury Prize for dramatic feature and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, director Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station follows the true story of Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan), a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who wakes up on the morning of December 31, 2008 and feels something in the air. Not sure what it is, he takes it as a sign to get a head start on his resolutions: being a better son to his mother (Octavia Spencer), whose birthday falls on New Year’s Eve, being a better partner to his girlfriend Sophina (Melonie Diaz), who he hasn’t been completely honest with as of late, and being a better father to Tatiana (Ariana Neal), their beautiful four year-old daughter. Crossing paths with friends, family, and strangers, Oscar starts out well, but as the day goes on, he realizes that change is not going to come easily. His resolve takes a tragic turn, however, when BART officers shoot him in cold blood at the Fruitvale subway stop on New Year’s Day. Oscar’s life and tragic death would shake the Bay Area – and the entire nation – to its very core.

The American Film Institute tends to play a little more fast and loose with its annual end of the year best movies list when compared against other organizations. Usually, there’s at least one selection odd enough to cause a double take. Last year, for example, more than a few heads were turned by the surprising selection of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises.

The character Wolverine has racked up quite the list of movie appearances in the last thirteen years, from key roles in the X-Men movies and now two solo ventures. The latest, The Wolverine, arrived in theaters this weekend, but audience response might be enough to show producers it's time to let the character return to being just another part of the mutant pack.

We couldn't force ourselves to see The Lone Ranger or Despicable Me 2-- sorry, guys. So instead we buckle up for a bit of a fight over next week's indie release Fruitvale Station, which won a slew of prizes at the Sundance Film Festival in January and is preparing to open in limited release

After taking Sundance on a dark ride and earning some major awards in the process, Fruitvale Station is two months away from wreaking a small amount of havoc on the psyches of movie-goers across the nation, and it can’t get here fast enough. But it probably shouldn’t take the train to get here.

One of the most talked about films of the Sundance Film Festival this past January was the first feature by writer-director Ryan Coogler, Fruitvale Station (formerly known as Fruitvale). A native of Oakland, California, Coogler found the inspiration for this harrowing drama painfully close to home in the tragic tale of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old who was fatally shot in the back by a BART police officer on New Year's Day 2009.